Last week's posts on Moon of Alabama:

• Mar 31 – Russigate's Role In Trump-Putin Relations
  Related:
  – Head of National Security Agency and Cyber Command Is Ousted – NY Times
  – British intel sought to silence West’s top Russia academic, leaks reveal – Grayzone

• Mar 31 – Racist Allied Underestimation Of Russia's Abilities Led To Its Win
  Related:
  – America’s New Lost Cause by Michael Vlahos – The Realist View
    The New York Times rewrites the history of the war in Ukraine.
  – Biden Lied About Everything, Including Nuclear Risk, During Ukraine Operation – Matt Taibbi /Racket
  – THE NEWS THAT WAS FIT TO PRINT YESTERDAY DOESN’T FIT TODAY – Patrick Armstrong

• Apr 2 – Tariffs Won't Solve The Bigger Problems
• Apr 3 – White House Lacks Financial Literacy – 'Tariffs' Show
  Related:
  – Trump’s Trade Policies: A Fast Track to Economic Ruin – Michael Hudson / UNZ
  – Did an LLM help write Trump’s trade plan? Probably yes – Gary Marcus
  – Trump's tariffs are designed for maximum damage—to America – Piie
  – Jeffrey Sachs: Trump’s Impoverishing Tariffs – Consortium News
  – Never look a gift horse in the mouth – Warwick Powell
    Reciprocal tariffs and the invitation to liberation
  – Liberation and Its Discontents – CFR
  – Why Trump May Get Away With His Tariff Trauma – Politico
  – Economic bullying benefits no one – this is a historical conclusion – Global Times
  – Inside President Trump’s whirlwind decision to blow up global trade (archived) – Washington Post

> After deliberations that went late into Tuesday, Trump didn’t decide on the final plan until about 1 p.m. Wednesday — less than three hours ahead of his Rose Garden announcement.
…
“He’s at the peak of just not giving a f— anymore,” said a White House official with knowledge of Trump’s thinking. “Bad news stories? Doesn’t give a f—. He’s going to do what he’s going to do. He’s going to do what he promised to do on the campaign trail.” <

• Apr 4 – Neocons Attempt To Stall U.S.-Russia Talks
  – Trump-Putin parley is a bit under the weather – Indian Punchline
  – Russia and the US made “three steps forward” after two days of consultations in Washington – Indian Punchline
  – Trump voices disappointment over Putin amid stalled cease-fire talks;
  shift in tone a negotiation tactic to maximize US leverage: expert – Global Times

—
Other issues:

Cont. reading: The MoA Week In Review – OT 2025-071

Negotiations between the U.S. and Russia about the war in Ukraine seem to be losing steam.

Russia has long insisted on a solution of the conflict which removes the root causes of it. It can not allow for Ukraine to become a NATO battering ram at its doorstep. It can not allow a fascist government in Ukraine.

Any solution to the conflict must resolve (at least) those two issues.

The Trump administration wants the Ukraine problem out of its way. It wants to implement a ceasefire to be able to turn away and ignore the festering problem.

Russia won't have that (archived):

On Tuesday, Moscow reinforced its hard-line, maximalist demands when Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov complained that Russia’s demand “to solve the problems related to the root causes of the conflict” was being ignored by the U.S., and “we cannot accept all of this as it is.”

As the U.S. overstates its progress in talks, Moscow seems concerned that Trump’s negotiators do not understand how serious it is about these demands, according to [Thomas Graham, senior director for Russia at the National Security Council under the George W. Bush administration and now a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations].

“The question is whether the administration has the patience to continue those negotiations and whether they can conduct the negotiations in ways that can extract concessions from the Russian side,” he said.

"Extract concessions"? By what?

The U.S. has no leverage over Russia. It is the Russian army that is winning on the battlefield in Ukraine. It has ample reserves in soldiers. It is by far outproducing NATO in weapons and munitions. It is stable in political, social and economic terms.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio is threatening Russia with more sanctions (machine translation):

Cont. reading: Neocons Attempt To Stall U.S.-Russia Talks

News & views related to the war in Palestine …

News & views related to the war in Ukraine …

News & views not related to the wars in Ukraine and Palestine …

Presidential Message on National Financial Literacy Month, 2025 – The White House, Apr 1 2025

The foundation of American economic prosperity is a society empowered with the knowledge and tools to make informed financial decisions to achieve the American Dream. …

I welcome that message.

Teaching financial literacy must start at the top. The members of the Trump administration obviously lack the knowledge and tools to make informed financial decisions.

It is the only possible explanation for how they came up with these numbers:

bigger

China does not have a 67% tariff on U.S. goods (it's 7.3%). The EU does not have a 39% tariff on U.S. goods (it's 5.2%). The numbers are bollocks.

So where do they come from? The official explanation from the U.S. Trade Representative is here. Its baloney:

Cont. reading: White House Lacks Financial Literacy – ‘Tariffs’ Show

(I am a bit under the weather …)

Later today President Trump will unveil more tariffs against imports from various countries. In consequence prices in the U.S. will rise, GDP will sink, U.S. financial markets will take another hit.

To build or regain manufacturing capacity requires well coordinated long term projects. Research, training, infrastructure development, capital allocation and market protection all need to work together over several years if not decades.

Pursuing just one of these measure – tariffs, and likely only for a short time, will not change any of the related problems in other fields.

The 'invisible hand' of the markets will respond to Trump's moves by showing him a very visible finger.